You Complete ME
By: stargirlr
Author's Note:
Where to begin, where to begin?
Hm.. well, I just realized that I'm complete idiot, moron, doofus, call me what you will and imagine me hitting my head on the wall.
Why, you may ask, do I have this masochist (is that the right word?) attitude to my life?
You can start with the fact that I insanely believed that my fic was going nowhere, it was leading me to pure nothingness, my writing was getting crappier by the second, etc.
Thanks to some encouragement from my friend Prapti and a banning on the Pokemon game boy game, I'm back!
But, I'm still thinking of putting this and my other story in hiatus. Main reason: Bloody stupid exams in two weeks…
Wait a minute! Two weeks, right?! If I post this chapter tomorrow and post one the week after… then I can study and after finishing the exams, I can write again, coz then it's the freakin' vacations!!!
Ok, sorry, if you didn't understand that, I don't blame you. My thinking processes have become so slow that I need to put it in writing so I can sort it all out.
Ooh… and I'm cutting out the stupid Malfoy/Snape parts… It's so damn confusing otherwise… I'll probably put it in after all this KatNik Ellis stuff. (hey, change Nik's name to Nip, then its Katnip!! Get it? Katnip? Catnip? Er… sorry.. hyperness there)
Ok, I know all of you are crying "Get on the story all ready!!"
So here goes nothing!
Chapter 23: Cyclic Quadrangles
That night, Sirius was so enthused with the brilliantness of his map idea, he could barely sleep.
"Hey Prongs?" He asked, lying on his bed, eyes wide open.
"What?!"
"Nothing…"
Two minutes later,
"Pro-ongs?"
"Hmm?"
"No, no, nothing…"
Five minutes later,
"Prongs, are you still awake?"
"NO! SIRIUS! I AM ASLEEP!!! I AM TALKING IN MY SLEEP! OKAY?!" James yelled furiously into his pillow.
"Oh." Sirius studied James' sleeping form. "Could you teach me how to talk in my sleep too?"
James got up hastily and threw on a robe. "URGH! Let's GO all ready!"
"Er… James?" mumbled Remus from his bed. "Where the hell are you going?"
"I? I'm not going anywhere! We? WE are going to go to the library and WE are going to find a way to finish his stupid, stinkin' map!"
"Yahoo!" yelled Sirius dragging up Remus by his collar.
By dawn, they had rounded up Nik to help them as well. When Peter came down for breakfast, they had just finished making the map.
James poured another huge cup of black coffee and drank it viciously. His eyes were red and his hair looked oddly similar to an uncharted forest.
The others were in various levels of tiredness.
Remus was rubbing his eyes and blinking furiously.
Sirius was nodding at the stone wall opposite him and Nik was trying unsuccessfully to control his yawning epidemic.
Peter looked from them to the finished parchment in front of them.
He picked it up cautiously and examined it. It read ' The Marauder's Map' in James' fancy cursive. It showed a detailed map of Hogwarts, including the grounds and the secret passages they had found the last couple of years. Labeled dots showed teachers, students, even the ghosts!
"Well done!" He exclaimed.
Sirius woke up startled and said sarcastically, "Yeah, thanks so much for your help, Wormtail…"
"But…er, I didn't do anything… how can it be the marauder's map… without me?
"Oh… we had to use a substitute." Sirius said airily.
Peter turned red.
"Sirius, shut up, mate. I'm no substitute for Wor-wor-wormtail…" Nik fought to suppress his yawn.
Sirius gave him a look saying, you wanna bet?
"So," James said sleepily. "We finished the map. Now what?"
"Now," Sirius said. "We use it."
But unfortunately, the after-effects of sleep deprivation, along with classes, girlfriends and tons of homework came their way and it was almost Christmas by the time they found the opportunity to inaugurate Sirius' brilliant idea.
The 20th of December, a Saturday had been given to the students as a chance to do last minute shopping in Hogsmeade.
So finally, they set their plans in order and found the perfect date… the night of the 20th.
Sirius was standing in one of the more cozier Hogsmeade shops. Lara, Lily and
James were supposed to meet him here after getting him his surprise Christmas presents ( He had sent everyone he knew a list consisting of 107 different items).
Bored of thinking about everything else, he fell back on his favorite topic…the new pants he was wearing. Everyone, he repeated mentally, everyone had warned him not to buy them, but Sirius, the great, knew better. These huge XXL pants were perfect. Especially WITHOUT that horrible waterproof jacket his Great Aunt Mavis had sent.
He began singing maniacally, strumming his fingers on the shop counter.
"Jingle Bells, Santa smells, Robin laid an egg, Batman sat in the Bat Mobile and sang to me instead…
Kissing through the snow on a bull dog open hair, o'er the knees we go, crying all the way…
Nails on hot chicks screech, making spirits cry…
What fun it is to kill a bee with a sledge hammer tonight! Hey!"
Sirius glanced around absent-mindedly, noticing the brown haired clerk giving him A Look. He glanced down at his pants and grinned. It was even good with the ladies. He made a mental note to mention it to Larika.
I don't think it needs to be said: Sirius cannot differentiate between A Look and A Cuckoo Look.
After singing a few more of those self-made obscene Christmas verses, he looked outside, trying to peer through the thickly falling snow. Where were they?
He noticed dark shapes moving outside and went to check. Was that them?
Suddenly, as he opened the door, a bucket full of cold, wet, freezing snow poured all over him seeping through his sweater.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" Sirius began jumping, yelling crazily. Why in George Clooney's name had he refused to wear his waterproof jacket?
But before he had a chance to recover the major part of his senses (and that wasn't much), four or five magically charmed snowballs zoomed towards him.
Sirius jumped back inside the store, slamming the door behind him. Although most of the snowballs were blocked, making loud SPLATs on the glass door, one lucky snowball made it inside.
The snowball flew around the rather small store chasing Sirius.
"AH!" yelled Sirius as he leaped to avoid a rather expensive lamp.
No matter though, the snowball slammed right into it, crashing it into pieces.
Finally, tired of running in circles and hearing the shopkeeper's constant squeals as
Sirius and the snowball broke most of the glasswares; Sirius came to a sudden halt and about-turned.
"FINE! Have it your way, snowball. HIT ME!" He yelled.
The snowball zoomed toward him, but instead of hitting him, it went… down his loose-fitting pants.
"Hey! HEY! I said you could hit me, not…" He grimaced and put a hand down his pants, fighting with the snowball in his abnormally loose trousers.
The shop clerk had made her way to the Employees Only exit and was now glancing around the door at frequent intervals.
"ARGH!" Sirius put his other hand in and with the help of both his hands, managed to pull the struggling snowball out.
"DIE, SNOWBALL, DIE!!"
He smashed the snowball onto his head.
"YEAH!!! YEAH!!! LOOK WHO'S STILL STANDING!!" Sirius roared to an invisible audience, holding his hands in the air.
The bell of the shop door rang and Lara, Lily and James stepped inside, laughing like there was no tomorrow.
"You… you should have seen your face…Hahaha..." laughed James.
Sirius blushed and noticing his hands still in the air, dropped them to his side.
"Seriously, Sirius… Have you considered becoming a professional wrestler?" asked Lily.
"Well. Yeah, I have." answered Sirius naively.
Lily began to roar even more.
Lara wiped the tears from her eyes with one hand, wrapping the other around Sirius.
"Aww… Siri… didn't I tell you not to wear those abysmally baggy pants?"
Sirius groaned. "I'll get you back for this! Just you see!"
"Yeah?" James snorted. "You and what army?"
Sirius pointed to the mousy brunette shop clerk peering from behind the door.
"I and her!"
"Er… you mean me and her." Lily put in, ever the grammatical queen.
"No!" Sirius cried indignantly. "Not you and her! I and her!"
The brunette clerk ducked inside.
Lily rolled her eyes, "I give up."
"Let's go, hon..." Said Lara as she led the way to Chocolate and Sprinkles.
"Why ice-cream?" asked Remus for the thousandth time.
"Because… Lily wants to eat ice cream…" Kat replied patiently for the nine hundred and ninety ninth time.
"Yeah, but why? It's okay if she wants to eat, say, a stack of hot pancakes with a delicious mixture of butter, maple syrup and honey. But ice cream? It's bloody midwinter!"
Kat nodded understandingly. "Alright Remus. If you want, we can get pancakes at the ice cream store…"
"Yeah, but why ice cream? What's so bloody great about ice cream? In this bloody cold, freezing weather?"
Remus and Katrina were walking down a crowded Hogsmeade street, trying to get to Chocolate & Sprinkles, where they were going to meet Lara, Lily, Siri and James.
A few feet behind them walked Nik with his latest girl, Kris something or the other, a delicate, pretty girl who barely spoke. Nik looked around impatiently. Even when she did speak, Nik admitted, she was always to soft to be heard.
Finally, they entered the busy store, finding their friends sitting at a large table reserved especially for them.
Sirius was staring deliriously at the unfortunate man behind the counter who was scooping the ice cream. Apparently, they had all ready ordered,
But, James, on the other hand, was looking curiously at the back of a girl at the next table.
Remus peered at her; also curious as to whom James was staring at with his girlfriend right next to him.
A white-blonde with pale skin… An excellent profile…Hmm… who did she remind him of?
The girl turned slightly, revealing gray-blue eyes and a sharp chin.
Of course! Remus let out a barely audible gasp.
James looked at him, startled. His eyes were pleading Remus not to say anything.
Remus looked down.
But, unfortunately, at the same time, the girl stood up and turned toward the group.
She stopped, looking amazed. "Oh my god! Is that really—Remus! Sirius! Peter! JAMES!"
She launched herself on each of them, giving them giant bear hugs. They, in turn patted her awkwardly.
"Hello?" Kat said, a tad bit icily.
"Won't you introduce me?" the pretty girl asked the boys.
Sirius shrugged. "Everyone, this is Cassandra Vablatsky. Cassandra, meet everyone."
James looked at the floor.
She beamed at them. "Call me Cassie. And Sirius? Don't they have individual names?"
"Er... yeh." Sirius grunted.
"And what are those individual names?"
"Larika, Katrina, Lily, Nicholas, Krishna…"
Nobody offered any nicknames.
"So!" Cassie smiled at them cheerfully. "What are you all doing here?"
"Er… Hogsmeade weekend…" Peter said slowly, looking from James to Sirius, wondering whether to reply.
"Ah…" She paused awkwardly. "Chilly weather we've been having, eh?"
No one replied.
"Er…" Cassie looked at James, "Listen, James, I'm glad I met you… Can we talk… alone?"
James looked up, extremely surprised. He chanced half a glance at Lily and agreed.
The pair walked outside on to the open veranda and James tugged up his jacket.
He remained silent, waiting for Cassie to speak.
Inside the warmer shop, as soon as James and Cassie left, Lily looked up and asked directly. "Who the hell is she and why does she want to talk to James alone, outside, in the freezing fucking cold?"
Sirius and Remus glanced at each other quickly.
Remus began, "I'm sorry Lily… I don't think we should, er…. I mean, we'll let James tell you… when he's ready…"
Lily glared at him steadily, blind fury radiating from her eyes.
Lara placed a soothing hand on her arm. "Lily, chillax, okay?"
Nik, who had been staring away from the discussion conscientiously, looked up, "Chillax?"
Lara rolled her eyes at him, with a 'Well, duh!' expression. "Chillax… as in chill plus relax…get it? Chill relax Chillax…" She paused. "Duh!"
"Getting back to the matter at hand?" cut in Lily testily.
"Ahem, yes…"
"Now as I was saying," Lily looked at Kat. "Please?"
Katrina looked away and whined, "Liilee… No…"
"Please, Kat, please, pretty please?"
"No…"
"Pretty please with a sliced cucumber, coriander chutney, salt, pepper sandwich on top?"
Kat blinked and said in a shaky voice. "No, Lils…"
Lily sighed. "If you don't, I'll tell Remus that you--"
Kat put a hand over Lily's mouth and said hastily. "Okay, fine, fine! I'll do it!"
"Hey, wait a minute!" Remus put in. "Tell Remus you did what?"
Lily shrugged lightly. "Nothing…"
"Grr…." Remus glared.
"K, I'm ready." Kat said.
"For what?" asked Sirius looking at Kat.
Kat looked directly back into his eyes. "For this."
Five seconds later, she shuddered and said, "The mind of Sirius Black is not a great place to be."
"Hey!" cried Sirius indignantly.
"So?" asked Lily.
"Yeah, Cassandra Vablatsky is a student of Beauxbatons, same age as us. Actually, she was in Hogwarts in first year, but for some mysterious reasons… or reasons Sirius doesn't know about, anyway, she transferred. Anyway, she lives near James' house…" She stopped.
"Both you and I know that wasn't what I was asking about." Lily said shortly.
Kat nodded slowly. "Er… Cassie…she was the first girl… that James was serious about…" Kat swallowed. "They went out for almost two and a half years. James… James was in love with her."
Lily was startled but she managed a quiet "What happened?"
Kat looked at Nik.
"Hey, Kris, want to check out the other flavors of ice cream? I've never seen…"
He moved towards the counter.
Kat studied her nails, biting her lip.
"Um… James caught her cheating on him… But, apparently, he never talks about it, because even Sirius doesn't know the details. All Sirius knows is that when James confronted her, she told him something like, 'It was destiny' …"
Lily hid her confusion.
Cassie left without saying goodbye to the rest of the group and by the time James came in, Lily had finished her twelfth ice cream.
He walked up to their table cautiously, almost expecting someone (Lily) to get up and throttle him.
"Are you… done?' He asked weakly.
The group paid the money and moved out, splitting up into their respective pairs.
"So…" Lily began slowly. "Did you have a good time reacquainting yourself with Cassandra?"
"Lils…"
"Did you?"
"Did I what?" He asked defensively.
"Did you have a good time?"
"Well… yeah… Cassie's a very good friend of mine…I haven't seen her in ages…"
"Oh, I know that…"
"You do?" He muttered under his breath. He was going to kill Sirius.
"What did you talk about?" Lily fought to keep her tone casual.
"Oh, nothing…" He pondered telling her. Would she feel hurt?
"All right…" Lily slipped her hand out from James'.
"It's funny, isn't it?" Remus asked Kat.
"Yeah… how so many love stories revolve around us…"
"What? We don't have a love story?" Remus said in a mock-hurt voice.
"It's not that…" Kat hesitated.
"Go on." Prompted Remus.
"I don't want to insult you or anything…"
"Oh, just tell me."
"Neither of us, well, neither of us have very magnetic personalities. I mean, James and Lily… that's always center stage… Not that I mind. I prefer staying out of the limelight, thank you very much. But…"
"Why Lily and James' relationship?"
"I dunno… It's always so… love-hate… so rocky… you know?"
"So, what? You want me to cheat on you?" Remus joked.
"No... No…" She laughed.
"Listen. Kat. You may not always be center stage for the social world of Hogwarts. But you are always in the spotlight for me."
Remus wrapped an arm around her, kissing her lightly.
Nik sighed fretfully and jammed his cold hand into his pocket. He had to do it.
Just like he had done with every other girl he had dated for the last few weeks.
Date her for a couple of days, then, down, down, down the drain she went.
It wasn't that he didn't realize what the girl went through.
No, he had enough experience with Kat for that.
If things didn't click with a girl, he'd tell her so.
Kris shivered at his side.
"Nik…" She whispered.
He didn't respond.
"Nik." She said louder than before.
Nik looked up, startled that she had actually spoken. "Yeah?"
"I was thinking…"
"Mmmm?"
"Things… things… aren't clicking between us…"
"What?!" he looked utterly amazed.
"I'm sorry, but… I think we should, we should just be friends…"
Nik was speechless. This girl… this girl was actually dumping him. Him!
"Oh god, I'm really bad at this." She blushed.
Nik just stared at her for a few seconds. Then he said, "We're friends."
"Yeah." She smiled again and her previously non-existent dimples deepened.
Nik blinked, and for some unfathomable reason, just for a second, he found her wildly attractive.
At dinner, back at Hogwarts:
"Excuse me, Potter." Lily shot at James. "Mind passing the croissants?"
"Yeah, yeah, Lily, whatever…" James sat inattentively, riveted by Sirius' conversation.
Lily moaned softly. "Grr…"
"Don't worry Lily. James still loves you." Larika patted her hand reassuringly.
"Who said I was worried about that? Do you think I should be worried about that?"
"Oh Lord…" Lara glared at her grilled chicken.
After dinner, in the girl's dorm:
Katrina began her usual routine of washing her face: shove Larika out of the bathroom, wet the face, soap the face, scrub the face, get soap in eyes, scream bloody murder, throw water at self, towel dry, shove Larika back into the bathroom and run away, laughing hysterically.
After witnessing this scene a couple of times, Lily had taken to timing her.
"So?" Katrina yelled as usual. "How many minutes?"
No reply.
"Lily?"
She walked over to Lily's bed.
No one was there.
Instead, there was a note.
' L&K,
Please don't look for me. I'm fine.
Lils '
And in fact, Lily was fine. Or so, she told herself repeatedly as she hugged a cushion, hiding in one of the huge armchairs in the Gryffindor common room.
She was fine. Fine. Great. Wonderful. Absolutely peachy. Absolutely Rosy. Magenty. Purpley. Violety. Cobalt bluey. Turquoisey. Salmon Pinky. Ew… Who wanted to be salmon pinky? Salmon…. Weren't those the fish that went upriver to er… propagate… Did she want to propagate? With James?
She stopped herself there. She was NOT going upstream to propagate James Potter's salmon pink children. No way.
Just on the verge of falling asleep with that thought, she heard a noise.
It wasn't a very exceptional noise. Just a noise you hear every day and subconsciously ignore.
But Lily knew exactly what it was.
That was the noise made by an invisibility cloak.
And as far as she knew, only one person in Gryffindor had an invisibility cloak.
James.
Lily was right.
As soon as the guys fake-yawned their way up to their dormitories, they threw on their cloaks, gathered their pranking supplies and pooled their collective cash.
Not only were they going to stealth their way through the Hogwarts castle, they were later going to Hogsmeade as well.
"Ready?" James clapped his hands together.
"Don't do that!" Peter squealed.
"Do what?" James looked puzzled.
"Clap your hands…like that…"
"Why?"
"Well.. just...don't do that, ok?"
"Ok…If that disturbs you so much… I'll stop."
Sirius looked up. "That… disturbs you?"
"Yeah…" Peter looked down.
Sirius smiled gleefully.
He clapped.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Peter stared at him, "Sirius! Stop it!"
"Why?" He clapped again.
"Frankly, because only eunuchs do that."
"Eunuchs?" asked Sirius, clapping once more.
"Hermaphrodites." Peter said flatly.
Sirius stopped abruptly.
"Okay, people, are we done with this enlightening and dazzlingly engrossing conversation?" Remus cut in.
"Yes." Sirius said curtly.
"Then can we get a move on?"
"Hey, why don't I go on ahead?" asked James. "Check for any booby traps…"
"Traps?" questioned Peter.
"Snape." James replied in an abnormally sweet voice.
The last time they had done something this bad, Snape had managed to get wind of it and the entire group had come close to expulsion.
James didn't mind the numerous threats from Professor McGonagall—they were routine by now-- but his normally loving mother had sent him a furious howler.
Better to be safe than sorry, he thought.
"We'll take the map, you go on with the cloak, all right?" Remus replied.
James nodded, "Where are we going to meet Nik?"
"Wait, he's coming?" Peter asked disbelieving.
"Yeah. Of course."
Peter couldn't help but feel mildly jealous.
"He's meeting us near the tree."
About ten minutes after James left, the trio were about to set off.
"Should I check the map?" asked Peter, eager to help.
Sirius shrugged.
"All right, Nik is on his way to the Whomping Willow… James is in the kitchens, what's he doing there? Lily is slightly behind him…Filch is… hmm… near the dungeons, won't have to worry about him…"
"What did you say?" asked Remus, just registering Peter's words.
"Er… Filch? He's--"
"No, no… before that."
"James and Nik?"
"No, after that!"
"Oh… Lily…she's slightly behind James… You know, it's really funny… It looks as though Lily's following James. Isn't that funny---"
Remus shot through the door, followed closely by Sirius.
Lily hid behind a huge statue of Gregory the Gregorian Monarch, waiting. James was in fact wearing his Invisibility Cloak; but his footfalls and curses as he stubbed his toe numerous times were by no means deafened. Lily snapped out of her thoughts James had just come out of the kitchens, holding a bottle of sparkling champagne and a basket full of strawberries. Lily hurriedly pulled her hair out of her face to get a better look. Where was James going with that?
James began to walk and Lily began to follow. As he walked up the stairs, Lily began to think that James was indeed going back to the Gryffindor; perhaps to surprise her?
But, no. James turned away at the last moment and moved towards the aptly named "Full Moon" corridor. In fact, down that corridor was a special tunnel the Marauders often used; sometimes for Remus' lycanthropy, other times to get prank equipment.
Lily paused for a moment, peering through a window. No, it was definitely not a full moon.
Where the heck was James going?
James tapped the stone witch, muttered "Dissendium" under his breath and entered the tunnel, his cloak swishing softly as he closed it from the inside.
Lily stepped forward and waited next to the statue. She would let James get a bit of a head start. Just as she lifted her wand, she felt a light tap on her shoulder. Whirling around, she found herself face to face with--- Professor Dumbledore himself.
"Good evening, Miss Evans, may I ask what you are doing roaming about the corridors in the middle of the night?" His blue eyes rested on her lightly.
Lily turned white and managed to stutter out a, "Pro-professor, I was, er, er…."
"You were…. Patrolling the corridors, perhaps?" He helped her out gently, eyes twinkling merrily.
"Yes, yes, Professor!" She exclaimed. "Many, many students have taken to wandering about the school grounds after hours…and er… and er…"
"And maybe as a Prefect…"
"Yes, sir and as a Prefect of this school… I, er…"
"You feel it is your duty?"
"Yes, erm, I feel it is my duty to make sure that no one is wandering about the school grounds, er, after hours."
"It is very, ahem, relieving to know that Prefects take such great measures to do their duty towards the school. Thank you Miss Evans, but you may go to bed."
Lily nodded and walked back to the Gryffindor tower in a state of shock.
Not only had James gone and met some girl in Hogsmeade, but because of him, she had been to of the tower after hours and been caught b the Headmaster, himself.
Suddenly, it struck her.
Hogsmeade… some girl…
Cassandra.
A/N: I know I promised cool map adventures but I was having so much fun writing all of these crazy episodes, I forgot all about them. Sorry!
Neway, Hope you like this chapter! It's nice, long and not all that sad!
Again, sorry for the delay and thanks so much for waiting!
